Sun Is Coming

Did They Even Have Marshmallow Topping?

We finally wandered into the Castle Inn in the Water Gap, after driving by so many times and wondering what the hell was going on in there. It was quite a surprise. A handful of quaint shops selling all sorts of goods, from lovely little toys to vintage kitchen appliances. Also a fairly stocked auction house in the back with some pretty sweet finds for some ridiculous low prices. Makes me curse our square footage.

They also had a cute little ice cream shop, called Zoe's I think. Got word that all the furniture was reclaimed from Tavern on the Green. I was hoping Rick Moranis would bang on the windows before turning into Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster, and summon Gozer with the helo of Zuul, but instead we just got sundaes. Laura got a shake.

Yuula sat by herself at the children's table, which was simultaneously adorable and pathetic, mixed with her inability to eat ice cream without causing a complete disaster area, so I guess it was pretty close to being attacked by a skyscraper-sized marshmallow man. 

we don't do moderation

Cookies For Dinner!

So we did not plan to be out all day. But we didn't realize how much stuff we had to do today. Bank deposit, transmission flush, x-ray, vaccination, birthday gift for Nadia, find garam masala and ginger garlic paste, beer for dinner party tomorrow,  bunny needs food, and butt splices to fix the Bose. We did most of that.

Pizza share for lunch, taco was best

Girl can shop. And she's sneaky too. Played us against each other to get herself a new bow.Asked me if she could get an orange bow. I said "ask your mother, you may already have one". She did. Laura asked "did Daddy say it was okay?". "Yes". "Ok then yes". Back to the register and hands me the bow. "Mommy said yes". Sneaky.

Finally got down to see Ashley in Allentown. Thought since we were down the road it was only right. She's become a northeastern girl, maybe for good, and we should really buy her some vinyl to break her into her new place. And a record player. She's invited to dinner. 

Memorable moment: Aesop pukes on Laura.

 oh, and we had cookies for dinner

A Majorly Weird Distraction

This is one of the reasons we don't take her out in public very much...

because we'd be laughing so hard at her we'd forget why we were out to begin with.

A New Seat For The Getaway Van

Went to pick out a new carseat today.

Has it really been that long since we did this? Damn there's a lot of stuff to choose from.

Laura needed a break to think, so we got nasty buffet at Golden Corral. There. We did it. Now we never have to go back.

When we got back to the store Yuula let us know what she thought we should be buying.

Ended up coming away with a middle of the road carseat, that will last, possibly a couple more kids, but also is part of a larger travel system involving the mobilization of multiple children, sitting, standing, facing all sorts of ways. Kinda neat. Kind of forced some forward thinking.

On the way out Laura (of course) said she had cracked some codes on a few sales they had and some black market coupon business she was involved in. Since we haven't done a whole lot of shopping for new boy stuff, I allowed the exploration. We came away with about 25 items between 3-9mos, all for a measly $32. I kind of don't know how it happened. It wasn't cheap clothes. Look at our receipt...

The clothes should've cost us $210. Instead it cost us $32. We are probably going to another Babies R Us in Jersey tomorrow. They're giving it away!

This one is my favorite!

Oh! Hey Katie

Katie has a habit to appear abruptly and lurk about for uncertain periods of time, only to disappear into the shadows again, leaving us clueless as to when we'll ever see her again, if at all. 

 She's the one holding Yuula up for this Santa photo op

We shared some delights at Cracker Barrel

We went to see Budd, but he was at home sleeping

We perused Target and did some potential Christmas shopping

An embrace

A sneaky goodbye

...and she's gone again

Always An Adventure With That Susie

We've been seeing a lot of Susie lately. I gotta say, they never disappoint. Always come home with a story when those two are involved.

This was the night that we accidentally had dinner at a Mexican biker bar and all had diarrhea the next day.

Yuula going buck crazy on a balloon while the girls take 5 hours to buy 3 pairs of pants.

Learning to eat lo mein like a lady.

4 Seconds A Day: September 2013

The Bag Will Find You

apparently it's a process

Zombie-Prepped Vows

 Wedding Eve. 

Rehearsals abound. 

As did the rain. 

A decision was made and indoors we went. 

The soon-to-be-betrothed didn't seem to mind.

Flower girls prep

After a delicious meal at Chicken and The Egg, Laura realized her sudden need for accessories. We hit some mega-girl shop and they went to town. Yuula tried on every pair of sunglasses and 2/3 of the necklaces.

Girls and their pearls

At some point of the day Laura and Yuula went with the girls for mani/pedis. My two years old's life experience has already surpassed my own. 

That night we made a last second decision to go see the late showing of World War Z. Laura was brave. So proud. Brad and Kevin joined us. The film ended around 1am, and as we left the theater I shouted "Hey Kevin! You get married today."

Until We're Rich, We'll Just Eat Ice Cream

Danielle had told us about this amazing place that sold all sorts of fun things, right up our alley. We didn't expect a four story warehouse of anything and everything we'd ever want or need to furnish a home. 

 There was one whole room dedicated to chandeliers and tile. I mean, c'mon. 

 One tile, $55

 I think I can make this and sell vegetables in the front yard

Here's Yuula playing with $130 blocks on a $2200 marble table top 

So we left, and got ice cream

A Day Waiting For Hearing

This picture is from yesterday but I don't care. I like it.

Today we got a new auxiliary jack put in the van. Enough is enough. We got some road trips coming up this summer and we can't this radio nonsense. We had an appointment for 11:30 at the Best Buy. Guy Carlos said it would take an hour. He finished at 3:15. Luckily there were some stores in the strip or the employees would've got real bored with us and the 3-D glasses over in the television section. But idle hands will be, and Old Navy had Laura all worked up over their new toddler spring collection, even tho it was snowing out. We dropped cash. Then to the new Saladworks for lunch (memories) and the pet store for a second round of food and treats now that we know Judee likes wet food and peanut butter. And she needs a bath too.

At this point we had more time to kill so we stodo by the juicers in Bed, Bath & Beyond an uncomfortably long time and then ended up buying a new griddle so we can have pancakes this weekend. Ours got ruined in Assateague last summer.

As we meandered down the street wondering if Carlos has made off with our sweet ride Ferris Bueller style we got the call that the job was done and after uncomfortably pushing a BBB cart thru BB full of dog food, child clothes and leftover potato chips, we got her back. And the stereo was pumping. All the way to Home Depot (approx. 0.8 miles) where we picked up all our closet goods.

Baby steps people.

Well On Her Way To Becoming a Japanese Teen

What better to do on the most frigid day of the year yet, but have the car serviced and wander the shops of Lehigh Valley. Laura needed a new pair of pants and a cell phone case, I wanted to reload on loose teas and German sugar, and Yuula would no doubt find something she wanted.



Before I could even get myself in the doors she had picked this nugget out. Nice product placement JCPenney. Eye level of a toddler never fails. But she still hasn't taken it off and she just went to bed.



We hit a kid's store where she felt the need to accessorize her outfit.



Her sass level was instantly exaggerated.



Over to Disney to stare at all the plush



Showing the big girls how to do style



Laura downloaded some app where you check into stores and get points towards a prizes. A cruise is 64million points. Today she got 30. I'm buying a bathing suit stat!



Yuula killed some butter chicken and rice pudding at Indian Spice

And it's only fitting that I shot the whole day in black and white because it only further accentuates the choices Laura made today in her purchases.

Yes those are florescent orange corduroys and a bright pink phone case. She must be going colorblind.

We visited Katie at YEA! on the way home. Good times catching up, even if the catchup was cluelessness.